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Anduril has unveiled the Barracuda family of autonomous air vehicles, revealing its offering for a Defense Department program aimed at mass producing aerial vehicles more cheaply. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey joins Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Technology." -------- Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrM7B7SL_g1edFOnmj-SDKg Watch the latest full episodes of "Bloomberg Technology" with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfAX25ZLrPGTygCwn55voYZ_LYyKjxokJ Get the latest in tech from Silicon Valley and around the world here: https://www.bloomberg.com/technology Connect with us on... X: https://twitter.com/technology Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BloombergTechnology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloombergbusiness/ Follow Ed Ludlow on X here: https://twitter.com/EdLudlow Follow Caroline Hyde on X here: https://twitter.com/CarolineHydeTV Listen to the daily Bloomberg Technology podcast here: https://www.bloomberg.com/podcasts/series/bloomberg-technology More from Bloomberg Business Connect with us on... X: https://twitter.com/business Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloombergbusiness Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloombergbusiness/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bloomberg-news/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bloombergbusiness
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Andrew Palmer, CEO of Anduril Industries, argues that the United States should shift from being 'world police' to 'world gun store,' providing advanced AI-powered autonomous weapons systems to allies at scale to deter expansionist powers like China, with manufacturability and cost-efficiency as strategic imperatives.
- Ukraine has exposed a critical weakness in US foreign policy: inability to manufacture basic munitions at scale undermines credibility with allies
- Barracuda missile system demonstrates viable mass manufacture (half the parts, half the time, 95% fewer tools) enabling rapid scaling to multiple allies
- AI-powered autonomous systems like Lattice can operate without real-time human control, making them resilient against jamming and operationally effective
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The United States military runs out of critical munitions, particularly missiles, in just a few days of conflict, which has driven multi-year effort to build a family of systems to solve this supply problem.
“The United States is running out of critical munitions, particularly missiles, in just a few days of conflict and for years has been working to build a family of systems that solves this.”
Citizens should trust elected officials they can vote for rather than private defense company executives, because elected officials are accountable to the electorate while private executives are not.
“In other words, you should not trust me. You should not have to trust me. You should trust somebody that you can vote for and then vote accordingly.”
Private defense companies should not make decisions about which weapons systems to sell or how they are used, because doing so would give private companies de facto control over US foreign policy; these decisions should rest with elected government officials accountable to voters.
“With the caveat that these decisions are not up to us. It's up to the United States government. They decide on who we sell to, how we sell to them, and to a large extent, what they do with these weapons systems. And I don't think that Andrew or any private defence company, any private company, period, should be in a position where we're de facto controlling the United States foreign policy position by saying, Oh, we would help with this, we would help with that. I think that we need to put that decision with the people who are supposed to be making that decision, which are people who are accountable to the electorate.”
The United States should pursue a strategy of being the 'world gun store' rather than 'world police,' providing allies and partners with advanced weapons systems to make themselves defensible rather than relying on direct US military intervention.
“I don't think the United States needs to be the world police. I think we need to be the world gun store. We need to be able to provide our allies and our partners around the world with the tools that they need to turn themselves into prickly porcupines that nobody wants to step on.”
Ukraine has revealed a critical weakness in US foreign policy strategy: the US claims to support many countries and allies, but cannot manufacture basic munitions like artillery shells or small missiles at scale, undermining the credibility of US security commitments.
“And I think Ukraine has really exposed this weakness in the United States foreign policy strategy where we say we support all of these people, but they look to say, well, they can't even manufacture the basics like artillery shells or or, you know, small missiles. How can I possibly count on these people to be able to cash these checks that they're writing?”
Sending American troops overseas ('boots on the ground') will not be the future of US support for allies; instead, the US should demonstrate support through provision of manufactured weapons systems at scale that allies can actually count on.
“And I think that sending American lives overseas boots on the ground is not going to be the future of how we support support our friends around the world. I think it's going to be making sure that we can make things at a scale where they believe that our support for them is more than just words. We can actually send them the things that we say that we're willing to send.”
The Barracuda missile system is designed with half the parts and requires half the manufacturing time compared to existing missile systems, while using 95% fewer tools, making it mass-manufacturable at scale.
“It's made with half the parts in half the time using 95% less tools than a lot of the existing missile systems on the market.”
Anduril's core product is Lattice, an AI-powered software system that serves as the 'brain' powering all of Anduril's different weapons systems including Barracuda and Ghost drones deployed in Ukraine since the second week of the war.
“Our core product is called Lattice. You know, in all industries has been working on A.I. powered weapons for about seven years now, and the core software is lattice. This brain that powers all of our different systems, including Barracuda, including all of us, including Ghost, which are in Ukraine and have been since the second week of the war.”
Anduril's Ghost drones have destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in critical Russian hardware in Ukraine, and this scale of destruction is possible because autonomous systems do not require real-time communication links to operators, making them resilient to Russian jamming.
“We destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in critical Russian hardware that can't really be destroyed by things that require a real time link to a person because the Russians are quite good at jamming communications links when it comes to things that are important to them.”
Arsenal One is a reconfigurable factory line capable of manufacturing not just Barracuda missiles, but the entire product suite of Anduril systems including missiles, drones, and submarines, with shared equipment and tooling between programs.
“It's not just Barracuda, it's actually the entire product suite of things that Android makes. It's it's all of our missiles, It's all of our drones, it's our submarines. It's a reconfigurable factory line that is able to share a lot of the equipment and tooling between these programs, which gets the costs down and it gets the rates up and the benefits flow on to our customers.”
Barracuda is designed as a mass-manufacturable product intended to be produced in many thousands of units at a time to meet United States, allied, and partner nation defense needs.
“It is a mass manufacturable product that is designed to be made at scale, many thousands of systems at a time, because that's what the United States need, that's what our allies need. It's what our partners need.”
The Russians possess limited jamming capability and cannot jam the entire battlefield, so continued destruction of their jamming equipment is strategically important to enable autonomous systems to operate more widely.
“They don't have enough of these jammers to hit the entire battlefield. But that's why it's so important that we keep taking those things out and eventually hopefully leave them helpful. Help us to these types of systems.”
China announced sanctions against Anduril including seizure of Chinese assets and prohibition from entering the country, which Anduril characterizes as a response to weakness in Chinese defensive systems against Anduril weapons.
“They announced that we are that they're going to seize all our Chinese assets and we're prohibited from entering the country. Joke's on them. We don't have any Chinese assets.”
Barracuda is specifically designed as a response to the manufacturing credibility gap exposed by Ukraine, because it enables the US to actually manufacture and deliver missiles at the scale and cost structure needed to support allied security commitments.
“And I think that Barracuda is a response to that. Largely, it's it's something that was designed from the beginning for low cost, high rate manufacturability.”
Anduril just closed a major funding round with previous investors and new strategic investors specifically to build Arsenal One, a 5-million-square-foot factory designed to create thousands of jobs and manufacture AI-powered autonomous weapons systems at scale.
“We just closed a huge round with our investors. It was all of our previous investors coming in and a whole bunch of new strategic investors who want to help us build a lot of things, but a particularly arsenal one which is a 5 million square foot factory that we're building that is going to create thousands of jobs and build vast numbers of AI powered autonomous weapons systems.”
The design goal of products like Barracuda is to make manufacturing progressively easier with fewer parts and quicker production to enable mass scalability, with the ultimate purpose of ensuring the United States, allies, and partners have adequate defense tools.
“Palmer is just making it ever more easy, fewer parts, and making it quicker to make. Well, you know, I think that having fewer parts, easier to make that's downstream is the real goal, which is to make sure that the United States, our allies and our partners around the world have the tools that we need to deter expansionist dictatorships like China right now”
Anduril received a $14 billion valuation in recent funding, capital specifically raised to build manufacturing facilities in the United States.
“you just recently got a whopping valuation of $14 billion by raising more money to build in the US, the Arsenal one and other manufacturing units.”
War games modeling shows that the United States is running out of critical munitions in just a few days of conflict with peer competitors like China, establishing the urgency of the Barracuda program.
“And a lot of war games we are modeling. The United States is running out of critical munitions, particularly missiles, in just a few days of conflict”
Allies will be able to trust that Barracuda can be manufactured and delivered to them when needed, both in peacetime and if a conflict erupts, because it is operationally flying with multiple customers right now.
“And it's a flying operational system right now with multiple customers. I think the partners are going to be able to trust that Barracuda is something that we can actually make for them and deliver to them when they need it, not just now, but also if a conflict were to erupt”
Anduril's recent deal with Taiwan to provide weapons systems prompted Chinese sanctions, and Palmer interprets this as evidence that China 'is really afraid' of Anduril's systems and knows they cannot be jammed or hacked.
“But it was in the wake of a recent deal that we did with Taiwan, getting them some systems that I think China, frankly, is is really afraid of. They know that our systems are the real deal and they know they can't jam them. They know they can't hack them.”
Anduril has a very strong relationship with Taiwan and Palmer has been there many times, with plans to return soon, suggesting deep integration with Taiwan's defense establishment.
“Oh, we have a very strong relationship with Taiwan. I've been there many times. In fact, I'm going there again soon.”
Anduril has been working on AI-powered weapons systems for approximately seven years.
“You know, in all industries has been working on A.I. powered weapons for about seven years now”